Fashion mail order company Shein: Young people like China

All young people know Shein’s packages of clothes that come by plane – from China of all places. Now the company is caught between the fronts of geopolitics.

“Really cool,” says the young woman, who calls herself Nadine, over and over again as she first rips open a mailer made of white plastic and then, one after the other, puts four pants in different colors, a dress with a floral pattern, a black top and a blue bikini in it camera holds. Catchy pop music plays in the background. 30,000 users on the Tiktok video platform liked Nadine’s post. In the comments below the video, users ask for the article numbers in order to be able to order the products themselves.

There are thousands of posts like Nadine’s on Tiktok. Behind the white bags is a company called Shein, pronounced shi-in, which has become one of the largest clothing suppliers in the world in just a few years. It’s still largely unknown among people over 30, but it’s all the rage among teenagers and young adults.